Cherrybear

Saturday, April 25, 2015

This Ol House- Weekend Edition

Late, very late, last fall I planted tulips in my random weird corner plot in my front yard. I planted an entire bag of them, and wondered if any would come up. Miraculously some have! I was beyond excited to see flowers growing and blooming!!

I took these pictures on Friday and I'm sure my neighbors thought I was weird for taking pictures of my three flowers but I did not care!

I was really glad I got pictures of this pretty blood orange tulip, since I woke up Saturday morning and looked outside and some stupid animal had destroyed it!!! ARRRRGGHHHHHHHH!!! I saw the petals laying so sadly on the ground and I nearly cried.

I'm having a massive Animal Planet issue in my backyard, and apparently my front yard as well. I have a huge groundhog who thinks he owns the backyard and under my shed and an entire colony of rabbits. Yes, I'm thrilled. *sarcasm*

Now that I'm a homeowner I am finding that weekends are a little different than they used to be! This is me Friday afternoon, after I got done teaching it was time to mow the lawn. I didn't think I was a person who really cared about grass and lawns, until I had my own. Now I find myself to be rather particular about the length and size of my grass. I like it cut down pretty short.

It had been 13 days since I Mowed last and man did it need it. Above is a side by side comparison of my back yard. It's basically a jungle.

And this is why I waited 13 days to mow. I am allergic to grass, trees, and weeds. Basically anything that is green and grows, I am allergic to. I have started allergy shots and they are helping, but not so much when I mow.

My allergist told me I needed to wear a mask to try and keep from breathing it in. Which I did in my backyard. I can tell you that it didn't help much. Or at all. I still went from fine to "i feel like i have a terrible cold" in about 5 mins of mowing the backyard.

I have to take breaks to blow my nose and catch my breath, something about wheezing and not being able to breathe makes me not feel so well. It's really frustrating as I like the physical activity of mowing my lawn, it's a great workout and It's nice to be outside doing something. But my sinuses and head just can't take it. The interesting thing about this allergy journey/struggle is that I can sit outside and not be bothered. I sit outside on my patio whenever I can and read and stay out there all afternoon and don't have any struggles.

After mowing I have to come in and immediately shower, and wash my hair and face and remove makeup, ect, and immediately put my clothes in the washer and wash them so that I am not bringing the allergens inside. I spent the rest of the evening sneezing, coughing, clearing my throat, and generally hacking up a lung. I think I may have to hire someone to mow my lawn until my allergies can get under control. #miserable

Friday night before the mowing fun, I had a few lessons and right before the final lesson I noticed my toilet was running. I went in to investigate and the back of my toilet handle inside the tank had broken. So I knew I needed a new handle. In the meantime, I rigged up the situation in the picture above. I used a drain un clogger to loop around the chain that causes the toilet to flush. I told this to the guy at the hardware store and he was impressed with my ingeniousness. :)

So Saturday during a break from the rain, I ran to the hardware store and picked up a new handle, with help from my new friend at said store who told me that I was a smart girl, and I wouldn't have any problems installing it. Told ya he was impressed with me! He was right. It took me more time to check out and pay for my handle than to install it on the toilet.

And yes, I have just written an entire post about, flowers, lawncare, and fixing a toilet. Life is just a little different when you're a homeowner. Now excuse me while I go to google landscaping options and how to get rabbits out of your flowers.